So apparently I skipped out on a few days. Woops. Lucky for you it would have just been more boring stuff to read though…so no big loss. Lets see… the three teachers went down to 2 the next day; as our other teacher had to take her baby to Majuro because it got sick. So movie and I were the only teachers for a whole week…clearly a lot of learning got done by the kids. Try putting 4 year old with 12 year olds and see how much gets done…its no a whole lot incase you couldn’t predict that outcome. I tried to get something out of it by playing an English Bee type thing I invented haha – by dividing them evenly up (some from every age group/ability level) on each team and playing a game that had options for all levels…and that worked…but like anything it got old after a while. I also became a Marshallese Language teacher this week as well. That is when you know you really got some problems in the school haha you have the American teaching Marshallese Language. I can barley teach my own language…I am sure as heck no going to be able to teach these kids their own language. But they thought it was hilarious…so they were paying attention. Who knows, maybe they got something out of it.
Anyways, its now Friday and we are on CHRISTMAS break. Wooo hooo. Poor 4th and 5th graders haven’t had a real teacher in 3 weeks though because Fancy hasn’t come back from Majuro. She missed a week before she went, and now she has been gone for 2 weeks. People who have come and gone say she is perfectly fine and she has been ‘out and about’ enjoying herself; so that is nice and comforting. Such good honest work she will have put into her next paycheck. She should feel good about herself. NOT
Finals though – what an interesting time. Its not that I have no idea where kids are before then, but its is just sometimes surprising to see who really gets stuff and who doesn’t at all. A lot of what these kids know here is only memorization and their conceptual understanding of the English language is abysmal. They have absolutely no comprehension. I can figure out of it is due to the simplicity of their own language, and it is just so much harder to go from Marshallese to English…or what. I could definitely see that, just simply due to the fact that one word has about 6 different meanings 2 of which are English vers, 3 of which are nouns and one of which is an adjective – so whenever they translate it they have no idea in what context to use it…? I could see that. But reading some of the responses the give to questions I feel like they just don’t think. They even copy sentences written directly in front of them completely wrong or the same word two completely different ways in the same sentence. You can tell the poor kids really have never had proper teaching (besides Carrie last year). But one year with one hour a day of real teaching can only do so much. Ah a feel so bad for these kids. It just really sucks, like I have said before, that the reason they can’t go further than this little island isn’t due to their own laziness and lack of determination (although that may be the case for some certainly not all) however, it is due to the sheer ignorance, flippancy and lack of knowledge and care on the teachers part. Uhguk.
Speaking of school problems, however, the Ministry of Education just had a PTA meeting with parents and teachers and addressed the issue of parent involvemnt in holding teachers accountable for their honest work and helping kids with motivation for achievement in school. They also reinforced their intentions to repair the school in January…so that was a god visit on their part I would say!
Away from school…it is still going strong. Haha - we had Gospel Day on Sunday which was an all day event filled with LOTS of church, and singing. Everyone got a nice laugh out of my singing and dancing – and it was an overall good day. After services and lunch I went to jebo to meet with Eric – a ripelle working on Agriculture over there – and got some seeds to put in my COMPLETED garden. The rock wall, thank you to JunJun, is finally completed! THAT was a pain in the butt…and a HUGE frustration. I didn’t mind doing it at all – obviously it was my project so I was expected to do it. But Whellor said he would have the PTA do it – so I kind of let it go a bit expecting that to happen. After the first 2 weeks of NOTHING happening – with constant reminders to Whellor - I finally just said screw it and started doing it myself. JunJun came out and helped after he died laughing at the sight of my attempted mixing cement and transporting it to the wall. The first day we worked 5 hours straight and the next we worked 7. It was a rather hefty project…but hey some bonus and much needed exercise. After 2 days we had 1 long side and 2 short sides completed…and one long side to go. Whellor came back and PROMISED that the PTA would complete the rest. The next day, 4 hours after he said they would, about 5 guys showed up, brought one load of rocks and then left to eat lunch and never came back. I was SO frustrated. If you say you are going to do something – DO IT. If you aren’t going to do it I could really care less. It’s not your job, that’s fine, no problem. BUT if you ‘promise, promise, promise’ that you’re going to do it, for three weeks, and never lift a finger, that’s pathetic. (In my mind. Maybe that’s a bit harsh and maybe it’s their culture, but it’s a pet peeve of mine…so it really frustrated me.) After school that day I was expressing my frustrations with life to JunJun and he just looked at me, laughed, and told me to ‘wait, you will see. You will have a smile again some day. Just you will see.’
So that night I went to sleep pretty early because I was mad, tired and homesick and was planning to finish the wall the next day after school. The next morning, however, I woke up to the sound of some creepy voice saying, ‘Merry Christmas Taylorrrr.’ I had no idea what was going on haha but awoke to see JunJun at my window with an awkwardly large smile on his face. I went outside and he covered my eyes and walked me over to my garden. When he took his hands off, I was standing in the middle of my COMPLETED garden! He had stayed up all night, literally, and finished the rock wall. I wanted to cry. I absolutely could not believe what I was looking at. It was amazing. I don’t think anyone could have done anything more perfect to make my day at the time. It was quite the fantastic Christmas present.
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